The Nun's Priest's Tale Paragraph

This is an explanation of the genre of the Nun's Priest's tale.

The Nun's Priest's tale is a fable.

There are characters who are talking animals in this tale: 'Pull yourself together, you silly bird!' or 'Just listen to this.' There is also a moral to this story; 'flattery can get yourself into trouble' and 'you should keep your mouth shut when it should be.'

Talking animals is one of the key points of fables. They have human like characteristics, because this way a human reader can associate with the story. The talking animals replace people and say or prove something through the story. This was, and still is a common way to tell someone to do or not to do something without really hurting their feelings or telling them straight to their faces. Also this way the author could express his/her thoughts about the world without naming any names and getting caught or arrested for doing so. Many great authors have used this technique in the past just like Aesop did. Fables are to show people and to make them realise that their actions and behaviour could lead to unfortunate endings.

In this tale Chaunticleer and Sir Russell Fox prove that flattery is a really bad thing and teaches us a good lesson about keeping our mouth shut. Therefore the Nun's Priest's Tale is a fable.